Ghana Minority Flags GH¢16.42m Discrepancies in South Africa Evacuation Funds

• The Minority in Parliament alleged that GH¢6.27 million meant for evacuees from South Africa could not be properly accounted for in ministry records
• Only 824 of the 1,964 evacuees could be confirmed as having received both the GH¢5,000 reintegration grant and the GH¢500 transport allowance
• The Minority is calling for a full independent audit by a top-tier firm, with the terms of reference and findings made public

Ghana's parliamentary Minority has raised serious concerns about the accounting records for the evacuation of Ghanaians who fled xenophobic violence in South Africa, alleging that GH¢16.42 million of the total expenditure cannot be adequately verified from documents supplied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Speaking at a press conference in Parliament, Nana Asafo-Adjei Ayeh, Deputy Ranking Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of Parliament for Bosome-Freho, said the Minority's review of documents obtained from Foreign Affairs Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa through a Right to Information (RTI) request showed significant gaps between the official figures and what the records could support.

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Payment registers raise red flags

The minister had stated that all 1,964 evacuees received a GH¢5,000 reintegration grant and a GH¢500 transport allowance.

However, the Minority's cross-referencing of the two payment registers found that only 824 evacuees could be confirmed as having received both packages, leaving 1,140 individuals whose payments remain unreconciled.

The caucus put the value of these unverifiable payments at GH¢6.27 million.

Further inconsistencies emerged in the raw signature counts. A total of 1,708 people signed for the reintegration grant, while only 1,001 signed for the transport allowance, a difference of 707 signatories that the Minority said demands explanation.

The caucus also flagged concerns around 442 minors listed on the reintegration register, questioning whether proper safeguards governed how the GH¢2.431 million associated with those entries was disbursed, and whether payments went directly to children or through parents and guardians.

Flight costs and duplicate entries under scrutiny

On the question of commercial flights, the ministry reported spending GH¢9.42 million to transport 1,038 evacuees by commercial aircraft, after 926 were flown out on chartered flights.

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Yet the Minority said the available documentation could only confirm 247 people travelled commercially. Combined with those on chartered flights, the records accounted for 1,173 evacuees, leaving 791 whose evacuation the caucus could not verify.

The Minority estimated the unexplained portion of flight costs at GH¢7.18 million.

Additional concerns centred on alleged duplicate names appearing across both the payment registers and flight manifests, suggesting some individuals may have been counted more than once in the overall figures.

Taken together, the Minority calculated the total amount requiring satisfactory explanation at GH¢16.42 million, equivalent to roughly 33 per cent of the GH¢49.72 million total cost cited by the minister, which includes GH¢33.72 million in government-funded expenditure and GH¢16 million attributed to Engineers & Planners for air tickets and reintegration support.

The Minority acknowledged that the minister responded to the RTI request and invited the Auditor-General to audit the exercise, but argued the response fell short of resolving its core concerns.

It called for a full independent audit by a reputable firm such as Deloitte Ghana, KPMG Ghana, PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana or Ernst & Young Ghana, with the terms of reference and findings published for public scrutiny.

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The Facebook post below contains a video of the Minority demanding a full-scale investigation into the evacuation spending.

Ghanaians in SA plead for fresh evacuation

Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that Ghanaians still living in South Africa have called on the government to reopen its voluntary evacuation exercise, saying their living and working conditions have reached a breaking point following a fresh wave of xenophobic attacks.

The appeal comes after authorities formally ended the exercise upon the arrival of the final group of 41 returnees in Ghana on 4 September 2026, bringing the total number of evacuees to 1,964.

But for those who remain, the closure of that window has left them without a clear path home.

Source: YEN.com.gh